‘Ghost landlords’ of downtown Midland storefronts might want to keep their ear to the community or risk having their wallets drained.
Two motions were presented at last night’s council meeting by Coun. Bill Meridis involving vacant buildings and storefronts along King Street, addressing issues of neglect and decrepit spaces.
The first motion involved a request for staff to investigate enforcement regulations on commercial property owners and investors for their responsibility in keeping their storefront businesses clean.
“I’ve had a number of phone calls in the downtown core concerning neglected vacant buildings; which… has a negative effect on our town, on our businesses, our residents, our tourism, et cetera,” said Meridis. “I’m imagining some of these building owners are ghost owners; they’re not from our area, and they’re not taking care of their investment as one should in a downtown core.”
Meridis added: “Some of the alcoves in here that (are) the main issue, which (are) on private property, which our bylaw department can’t go into to even clean up the storefronts – they don’t even have the authority to do that.”
The issue of Midland’s homeless citizens taking advantage of the frontages and alcoves in vacant buildings was a point of contention brought against Mayor Bill Gordon by residents, as he had raised the vacancy topic on his own personal social media in the days leading to the council meeting.
“When I posted that, it had nothing to do with homeless people,” stated Gordon. “It had to do with owner responsibility and with this $50-million downtown we built, and allowing a few – let’s call it – negligent building owners with not a single care in the world to basically bring down the entire downtown experience, just because they choose to do nothing with their downtown building.”
Gordon suggested that the town could take an approach similar to Smart Centres, whereupon vacated businesses would immediately have their signs removed to make way for incoming tenants.
He also offered that vinyl appliques could be adhered to storefront windows to promote a feeling of commerce and activity in the downtown, but realized that no resolutions would be ready in time for the 2024 Ontario’s Best Butter Tart Festival that regularly draws more than 50,000 people to the town.
As an interesting note, Meridis is not only the council representative for the Downtown Midland Business Improvement Area, but he identified himself in the meeting as being tied to the downtown on a personal and business level.
“My family has five commercial storefronts downtown; they’re eventually going to be one, two, maybe three vacant at the same time,” said Meridis. “I’m not here to penalize myself, but I’m a landlord that protects his investment and wants the good for downtown, have a positive experience, and upkeep my building to get it rented as soon as possible.”
A second motion by Meridis proposed staff look into implementing a vacant building tax and/or fee on vacant commercial storefronts facing King Street, from Yonge Street to the waterfront.
Following comments that it was intended to be partnered with the first motion, Coun. Jim Downer requested that a legal opinion be brought up before starting the process, which was echoed by Jamie-Lee Ball.
CFO Lindsay Barron raised the point that there might not be an incentive to pay if the fee were too low, and included an example where a building worth $650,000 would only be paying roughly $17,000 per year extra.
“That sounds like we’re not going to get any push-back,” retorted Ball, “and then we’re going to get money to beautify the downtown, hopefully with the first (motion) that we spoke about… that says they have to now beautify their building as well. And now we have funds to do it and it sounds like they’re not going to push-back from the sounds of it, so, perfect.”
Meridis reiterated his stance further in the meeting, once more mentioning his family’s ownership of downtown buildings and being a responsible building owner or investor to the greater good of the downtown.
“When I explained it to the one property owner that saw the motion after I explained it to him, he was in agreeance with it because he’s not a ghost landlord,” Meridis shared.
Both motions were carried with the requests for further investigation by staff. A third motion regarding the enactment of regulating peddling through a bylaw had been removed from the agenda.
MidlandToday asked Meridis if the motions constituted a conflict-of-interest due to his claims of family and self as building and business owners in the downtown, looking to beautify the core.
“I don’t believe so,” replied Meridis, “because I’m basically taxing myself. I’d be stupid to bring it forward, to tell you the truth, because my buildings at one point will become vacant, and my purpose is to fill them up.
“There was another motion that came through council that I contacted the integrity commission about, about the downtown. I was excused from that, and this probably falls under the same category where it’s a common interest of all the building owners downtown, all the businesses,” Meridis noted.
Council meetings are held every third Wednesday, and can be viewed on Rogers TV cable channel 53 when available, or through the livestream on the Rogers TV website. Archives of council meetings are available through Rogers TV and on the Town of Midland’s YouTube channel.
